A Glass of Water is Enough

I was listening to a man read his listener essay on my local public radio station and a man was describing his experience of meeting the children’s television celebrity, Mr. Rogers. 

The man was telling what it was like to be in Fred Rogers presence. He talked about how straightforward Rogers was and how very present and centered. He described the impact of that brief meeting.

The man described how, after Mr. Rogers died, he began to notice that when he was with his own kids he was always trying to be such an entertaining dad. It then occurred to him that Mr. Rogers wasn’t necessarily entertaining, rather he was simply himself. Mr. Rogers just was-- and that was the message that he conveyed to little kids: It really, really is OK to be yourself. 

“There’s no one like you” Mr. Rogers would say, “No one just like you.” And, “I’m glad you’re my friend.” 

Mr. Rogers lived inside that paradox we know so well from being people with addiction. That thing the Big Book talks about: the egomaniac with an inferiority complex.

That simple message from Mr. Rogers is the perfect antidote to that dilemma: We want to be special, but we feel like we’re nothing. Or when we feel “less-than” we try to puff up and look like a big deal. 

“There is no one just like you,” Mr. Rogers says and it’s all there: no need to puff up, you are special, and so is everyone else. It’s like the statistical improbability of Lake Woebegone: Where all the children are above average. 

The man who wrote the listener essay said that he now caught himself trying to entertain his kids, to be a clown, and to buying them things to be a “great dad” when, he realized that he could simply be “their Dad” 

He said in his closing--and this shot straight to my heart-- “I realized I could simply be a glass of water instead of a can of Coke.” 

I got it. I so often want to be a can of Coke because I think it’s better or expected. And because, even after so many years, there is still a part of me that does not believe that I am enough. 

A glass of water instead of a can of Coke. I too often reach for shiny and red and sugar sweet instead of cool and clear and refreshing. Is there anything more truly thirst quenching than a glass of water? Anything more relaxing to be around than a person who just is naturally simple and clear?  

This is another way to say, “Be yourself” and “You are enough.”

But I like this question:

Am I trying to be a can of Coke today or glass of water?